So, student pilots.. Who are we and where do we stand?

tuwood said:
Well, guess who flew a plane all by himself yesterday? :cool:
...I immediately knew I needed to go around and hit the throttle, but still got a couple good bounces in... I ended up doing 5 touch and goes total and did a couple go arounds,...
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tuwood,
congrats on the solo! Guess you're learning that going around sooner than later is better.
 
Congrats, tuwood!! I've been waiting for this post :)

As for your solo not being pretty... mine wasn't either! I bounced my first landing. Had to do a go-around on my second one because I came in too high. Traffic was busy, so while I was just re-getting my bearings from the go-around, I was given orders to enter a right 360 on the downwind and reentered the pattern too close in to the runway. So, my approach on my last landing ended up being too tight. At least on that one, I managed to land the plane with out bouncing all over, but it still wasn't great. Honestly, those were probably my worst landings to date. I went up solo again a couple days later just to prove to myself that I could do it without being all sloppy... and I did.

Anyway, good job on the solo! So happy for you.
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
Congrats, tuwood!! I've been waiting for this post :)

As for your solo not being pretty... mine wasn't either! I bounced my first landing. Had to do a go-around on my second one because I came in too high. Traffic was busy, so while I was just re-getting my bearings from the go-around, I was given orders to enter a right 360 on the downwind and reentered the pattern too close in to the runway. So, my approach on my last landing ended up being too tight. At least on that one, I managed to land the plane with out bouncing all over, but it still wasn't great. Honestly, those were probably my worst landings to date. I went up solo again a couple days later just to prove to myself that I could do it without being all sloppy... and I did.

Anyway, good job on the solo! So happy for you.
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lol, that sounds almost exactly like my solo experience. I was definitely landing flat and not rounding out properly which contributed to the one porpoise landing. They were by far my worst landings to date and that even includes my very first landings.
I also plan to go up again this week to prove to myself that it was just nerves. My CFI gave me permission to do more than the three if I wanted, so I made sure to get in a couple extra on Friday just so I didn't end on a sour note.

I can't imagine if I would have gotten a 360 on my downwind, I was half tempted to fly a VERY long downwind just to get my blood pressure back down. lol

Here's the video from my first take off and touch and go. The landing was flat, but survivable.
 
2 hours with foggles last Wednesday,
I have the worlds most boring flying video to prove it:
Lots of standard rate turns, straight and level, slow ascents and descents. I should bring some windex with me next time. Turn down the sound and skim through to see some nice scenery that I didn't get to see under the hood.


still have night to do, long XC...
 
jimbilly said:
2 hours with foggles last Wednesday,
I have the worlds most boring flying video to prove it:
Lots of standard rate turns, straight and level, slow ascents and descents. I should bring some windex with me next time. Turn down the sound and skim through to see some nice scenery that I didn't get to see under the hood.


still have night to do, long XC...
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Nice work. Your scenery is a little better than my cornfields in Nebraska. :)
 
Went up for another 2.5 hours today with my CFI because my plane is reserved by somebody else this Friday. Oh boy, what a fun day. We had some pretty good winds (15021G28KT) so it gave me a good opportunity to work on my crosswind landings (and landings in general). We went to an uncontrolled airport KSWT and did about 15 touch and goes and then another 5 or so at KLNK. I had talked to my CFI about cleaning up my patterns and even some of my concerns with turns in the pattern so we primarily focused on tightening that up today.
We also went up and did some more slow flight and stalls, but this time he had me do some big turns at the stall. It was pretty scary at first, but after doing a few of them it was amazing that even banking at 60° at a full stall was no different than a regular stall when you don't load up the wings. I just got the normal wing buffeting and it was easily recoverable with power and dropping the nose. I quickly realized that not only do I have to stall the wing, but I have to turn aggressively, load up the wings, and likely add some pro spin rudder to have a bad day in the pattern. It's still a real risk, of course, but me doing my 90kt-100kt coordinated 30° turns is a LONG way from the danger zone. lol

GPS track from today:
https://www.cloudahoy.com/debrief/?key=UfbcPY55Lx9jr2Aq4

(Please disregard the train wreck of a downwind entry at KSWT)
 
fiveoboy01 said:
35-year old student pilot going after my PPL for no particular reason other than a crazy love of aviation that started around Kindegarten.

Soloed at 13.5 hours, 22.4 total at the moment. I do 2-3 lessons per week.
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Did you make it?
 
Daily wind gusts ~40 mph lately... keeping everyone grounded. When it's not been windy, it's been rainy. No fun. So, I've decided to mold out my own fun... touring the control tower tomorrow morning! I'm really excited to meet the people behind the voices, get an inside look into what they are actually doing and seeing in there, and pick their brains on some things. Any suggestions on questions to ask them?

Additionally, I signed up for an all-day FAA safety seminar this Saturday, so look forward to learning a bit more about how to be a safer pilot.

I've also been emailing back-and-forth with the FAA examiner for my school. He gave me his card a while back and said if I ever have questions, to ask. So, I'm asking and getting a lot of very useful information. I also learned that he apparently offers a three hour spin recovery and basic aerobatics course in a Decathlon, and you don't have to already have your PPL to take it. So I think I'm going to go up with him one day for that. I keep hearing that, even if you have no interest in being an aerobatic pilot, learning the skills behind it has a lot of value. I definitely see a lot of value in learning how to recover from spins.

Anyway, I'm using my downtime to my advantage since I can't fly. Hopefully I'll be back in the skies soon.
 
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tuwood said:
Went up for another 2.5 hours today with my CFI because my plane is reserved by somebody else this Friday. Oh boy, what a fun day. We had some pretty good winds (15021G28KT) so it gave me a good opportunity to work on my crosswind landings (and landings in general). We went to an uncontrolled airport KSWT and did about 15 touch and goes and then another 5 or so at KLNK. I had talked to my CFI about cleaning up my patterns and even some of my concerns with turns in the pattern so we primarily focused on tightening that up today.
We also went up and did some more slow flight and stalls, but this time he had me do some big turns at the stall. It was pretty scary at first, but after doing a few of them it was amazing that even banking at 60° at a full stall was no different than a regular stall when you don't load up the wings. I just got the normal wing buffeting and it was easily recoverable with power and dropping the nose. I quickly realized that not only do I have to stall the wing, but I have to turn aggressively, load up the wings, and likely add some pro spin rudder to have a bad day in the pattern. It's still a real risk, of course, but me doing my 90kt-100kt coordinated 30° turns is a LONG way from the danger zone. lol

GPS track from today:
https://www.cloudahoy.com/debrief/?key=UfbcPY55Lx9jr2Aq4

(Please disregard the train wreck of a downwind entry at KSWT)
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Thats a cool tracking app, looks like you pretty consistently round off your crosswind to downwind turns.

My phone makes crappy track recordings, tons of gaps and errors, I'm jealous.
 
jimbilly said:
Thats a cool tracking app, looks like you pretty consistently round off your crosswind to downwind turns.

My phone makes crappy track recordings, tons of gaps and errors, I'm jealous.
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I'm running an iPhone 6s and it has so far done a pretty good job. I do the recording in Foreflight and then export it to CloudAhoy on my phone. There's a spot on the dash in the Cirrus that I just set my phone on and it seems to keep a pretty good signal. I did take a flight with a friend once and stuck the phone under my leg in the seat and it had horrible gaps in it. So perhaps yours just needs a better vantage point to get a solid GPS signal.

Thanks for noticing the turns, that was one of my things to work on this flight. I made an intentional effort to pick better ground references for the pattern last week at KLNK and then used them in the air. I was a little all over the place in prior tracks where my downwind would sometimes be 1 mile from the runway and other times over a mile and a half.
Here's a quick drawing to show you what I'm looking for. On the upwind after takeoff I simply climb to 500' AGL and then start my turn so it varies a little. I try to square my crosswind and then line up my downwind with the "L shaped" building and then try to aim for the middle of the "Kawasaki factory" on my base. If I get a little fast or a little high I have the option to extend my downwind a little and sometimes ATC (Class C airport) will call my base for spacing which adds in some variation.
My next goal is to set up a reference point on my wing for the 1 mile spacing so I can use that in the future for airports that don't have familiar ground references.

pattern.png
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
... touring the control tower tomorrow morning! I'm really excited to meet the people behind the voices, get an inside look into what they are actually doing and seeing in there, and pick their brains on some things. Any suggestions on questions to ask them?

Additionally, I signed up for an all-day FAA safety seminar this Saturday, so look forward to learning a bit more about how to be a safer pilot.

I keep hearing that, even if you have no interest in being an aerobatic pilot, learning the skills behind it has a lot of value. I definitely see a lot of value in learning how to recover from spins.
QUOTE]

............................................................................................................

That's great Cajun! You'll enjoy the tower visit. You ought to visit approach control someday too (Boston Approach I guess?) Ask anything you want. Most controllers enjoy pilots visiting and are very helpful with whatever they can do or answer for you. Some of 'em even drink beer, some a lot! That's what I've heard anyway. :rolleyes:

I still attend seminars when they're in the area. Even though I've been flying for many moons I always learn something or pick up a great tip. Most people keep quiet and afraid to ask questions (think they're embarrassed), don't. When you ask a question, there's probably 4-5 others that are glad you did.

Spins will open your eyes WIDE the first 2-3 of them, and then it may end up being fun for you as you learn the recovery procedure. If you were unsure of stalls before, after some spin training you won't be. Maybe ask him if he'll do a loop for ya! That's fun! Great choices.
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I really enjoyed my tower tour and learned a lot. The people were great and had a lot of fun showing me how they do what they do and why. I asked them to take me through a beginning to end VFR flight with handoff to departure so I could see what they do. I was amazed at how "manual" it really was with their little paper strips they scan in.
They also took me through an IFR flight plan showing me how they get them and how they read it to the pilot when he asks for his clearance.
The types of questions I asked were related mostly to VFR flying and when/who to contact type stuff. They showed me what an unknown VFR aircraft looks like on the screen as well as the ones they're tracking. I must have asked them a half a dozen times that I don't have to contact you or approach as long as I don't enter the Class C space? lol
I went through a few scenarios about coming off an uncontrolled airport and who to contact and when. They took me through all that as well.
I saw the runway incursion devices that go red any time anybody is on or crossing a runway which I thought was a cool safety feature.
From a coolness standpoint, I hung around for almost an hour and was able to watch some cool planes come in. We had some T-38's, Navy E-2's and, and a B1 Bomber land which was awesome to watch.

Overall, they're just regular people like anyone else and it removed any tension I had with regard to not "saying the right things" over the radio.
 
Got my 3rd class medical and student cert today only 37 years after my first medicaal! Next up is looking at instructors unfortunately going out of town for vacation starting Sunday.
 
NHWannabe said:
Got my 3rd class medical and student cert today only 37 years after my first medicaal! Next up is looking at instructors unfortunately going out of town for vacation starting Sunday.
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Congratulations! Excellent start.
 
tuwood said:
I really enjoyed my tower tour and learned a lot. The people were great and had a lot of fun showing me how they do what they do and why. I asked them to take me through a beginning to end VFR flight with handoff to departure so I could see what they do. I was amazed at how "manual" it really was with their little paper strips they scan in.
They also took me through an IFR flight plan showing me how they get them and how they read it to the pilot when he asks for his clearance.
The types of questions I asked were related mostly to VFR flying and when/who to contact type stuff. They showed me what an unknown VFR aircraft looks like on the screen as well as the ones they're tracking. I must have asked them a half a dozen times that I don't have to contact you or approach as long as I don't enter the Class C space? lol
I went through a few scenarios about coming off an uncontrolled airport and who to contact and when. They took me through all that as well.
I saw the runway incursion devices that go red any time anybody is on or crossing a runway which I thought was a cool safety feature.
From a coolness standpoint, I hung around for almost an hour and was able to watch some cool planes come in. We had some T-38's, Navy E-2's and, and a B1 Bomber land which was awesome to watch.

Overall, they're just regular people like anyone else and it removed any tension I had with regard to not "saying the right things" over the radio.
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I had a similar experience this morning. I really enjoyed the tour... getting to meet them and see that they are normal humans like us! I was also really surprised how manual and "old school" so much of the process is, like how they just keep track of us with pen and paper. Figured it would be something far more high tech. But it makes sense. Technology breaks; Pen and paper doesn't. They just got a new beacon light gun yesterday, so they were excited to show that off. I liked watching the little Atari-like monitor with all the planes moving around it. Wasn't a lot of action, since the clouds were low and the winds were high. But I at least got to see a couple of jets coming and going.

Just as fun was playing an April Fools on my instructor! I purposefully showed up a few minutes late to ensure he'd be inside. Then I left this note on his windshield:

"Dude...

I'm so sorry about the damage to your rear fender! Damn. I totally didn't see your car when I slammed into it like that!!!

Apologies for not leaving my contact or insurance info, but I just got out of jail for some b.s. armed robbery charge and am months behind on Child Support... I don't need more heat on me.

Life sucks. Now so does your fender. Ha!

~Anonymous~"

So when we left, I went and sat in my truck (which I had facing his) and laughed my ass off watching him read the note and zip around his car trying to find the damage. At some point, the lightbulb went off in his head and he looked up at me and started laughing. I was pretty much in tears by then :D
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
I had a similar experience this morning. I really enjoyed the tour... getting to meet them and see that they are normal humans like us! I was also really surprised how manual and "old school" so much of the process is, like how they just keep track of us with pen and paper. Figured it would be something far more high tech. But it makes sense. Technology breaks; Pen and paper doesn't. They just got a new beacon light gun yesterday, so they were excited to show that off. I liked watching the little Atari-like monitor with all the planes moving around it. Wasn't a lot of action, since the clouds were low and the winds were high. But I at least got to see a couple of jets coming and going.

Just as fun was playing an April Fools on my instructor! I purposefully showed up a few minutes late to ensure he'd be inside. Then I left this note on his windshield:

"Dude...

I'm so sorry about the damage to your rear fender! Damn. I totally didn't see your car when I slammed into it like that!!!

Apologies for not leaving my contact or insurance info, but I just got out of jail for some b.s. armed robbery charge and am months behind on Child Support... I don't need more heat on me.

Life sucks. Now so does your fender. Ha!

~Anonymous~"

So when we left, I went and sat in my truck (which I had facing his) and laughed my ass off watching him read the note and zip around his car trying to find the damage. At some point, the lightbulb went off in his head and he looked up at me and started laughing. I was pretty much in tears by then :D
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haha, that's hilarious. Well played
 
Woot. After 2 hours and 15 landings in the pattern today, I soloed .

Instructor got out, did the endorsements, I made my call to ground for taxi clearance to go fly and the controller asked "is this your first solo." Yes ma'am, said I. She gave a woohoo and clearance to taxi. After three laps, I got a nice job and congratulations from tower. It meant a lot to me that they were so supportive.

Now on to stage check


Tower and ground were awesome and kept things quiet for me. They didn't say so, but I could tell, they were helping keep my distractions to a minimum.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
Just as fun was playing an April Fools on my instructor! I purposefully showed up a few minutes late to ensure he'd be inside. Then I left this note on his windshield:

"Dude...

I'm so sorry about the damage to your rear fender! Damn. I totally didn't see your car when I slammed into it like that!!!

Apologies for not leaving my contact or insurance info, but I just got out of jail for some b.s. armed robbery charge and am months behind on Child Support... I don't need more heat on me.

Life sucks. Now so does your fender. Ha!

~Anonymous~"

So when we left, I went and sat in my truck (which I had facing his) and laughed my ass off watching him read the note and zip around his car trying to find the damage. At some point, the lightbulb went off in his head and he looked up at me and started laughing. I was pretty much in tears by then :D
Click to expand...

Damn you're good! Very good. And on April Fools day too, niceeeee! :)
 
MIFlyer said:
Woot. After 2 hours and 15 landings in the pattern today, I soloed .

Instructor got out, did the endorsements, I made my call to ground for taxi clearance to go fly and the controller asked "is this your first solo." Yes ma'am, said I. She gave a woohoo and clearance to taxi. After three laps, I got a nice job and congratulations from tower. It meant a lot to me that they were so supportive.

Now on to stage check


Tower and ground were awesome and kept things quiet for me. They didn't say so, but I could tell, they were helping keep my distractions to a minimum.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Congrats!
 
Passed my written knowledge exam Friday. My instructor had requested I shoot him a text as soon as soon I got done to let him know how I did. Since it was April 1st, I decided to have a little fun. I should note that my instructor is a gold seal instructor but he is rather laid back in his style and, other than my pre-solo test, he never has asked me any questions to determine how much I know or don't know. (The very first day I met him, he asked me if I knew what made the plane fly and I launched into a three minute answer about how the plane needed a sufficient amount of thrust to overcome drag By a sufficient amount to have enough speed that sufficient wind across the wing was created to...yada, yada... When I got done he said, "ok, I was just looking for lift there." I assume from that day forward he has been under the impression that I've been making sure to keep up with stuff, and other than ask me if I felt I was ready for the written test, he's said nothing.

So, when I finished the test I sent the following: "Well that didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped. They asked me all kinds of stuff that we didn't cover. I was supposed to know stuff about weather? I'm pretty disappointed."

I got a kick out of his response texts as he tried to keep from making me feel worse while trying to figure out just how I could have blown it. He eventually asked what score I got and I had to break down and tell him it as just an April fools joke and that I'd made a 100.

So I've got the test behind me and I got to instructor: a good day.
 
Went up for my second solo yesterday. There was about a 10kt cross wind so I decided in advance to do a couple low approaches to make sure I was dialed in and also make sure I didn't get a nerve wracking bouncer right out of the chute.
I still have a tendency to land kind of flat and I think it's because I'm not looking down the runway for whatever reason at the flare. I absolutely know to do it and I always do it with my instructor onboard, but when I get by myself I think I tend to hyper focus on the landing that I don't look down the runway and get the nose up properly. I'm going to focus extra time on getting a better pitch and stall at touchdown the next time I go up.

I have to say that I've had mixed feelings about using GoPro's on my training flights, but my rule is to set them up and start them recording before I do anything else. Then I don't even think about them so there's no distraction component. I absolutely love the debriefing aspect of having video because I've caught several things that I wouldn't have otherwise. Even on this flight yesterday I was skipping across the flight line afterwords because I thought I did so awesome. Then I watch the videos and see just how flat all these landings were and have a whole new attitude. lol
Anyways, here's a few of the T&G's from yesterday for your amusement. In my defense, it's only my second solo (and I didn't crash). ;)

BTW, I recorded the ATC audio but discovered if you start the recording too soon using the bluetooth connection between FlightLink and a Lightspeed PFX Zulu headset it only records the mic audio and not the intercom/radio audio. So rather than include me mouth breathing on the mic for the whole flight I opted to just leave it off the video.
 
Saturday morning I flew two ILS 25 approaches into KORL while simultaneously handling the radio. I've never been able to fly & handle the radio IFR before. We had clouds (but not to low) and light rain. Most interesting was the 30kts of wind at 1500' which sheared to 15 kts just below 1000'. I handled it all pretty well (though I was bushed after). Next up: full (non-vectored) approaches into KOCF. That should be tomorrow (Thursday) morning weather permitting.

John
 
I swear, every training day just gets more and more fun.
Got another 2.2 in today (23.6 total now) and we worked primarily on short field takeoffs and landings as well as soft field takeoffs and landings. I'm not sure what happened, but everything just started clicking today and I absolutely rocked the landings. I was hitting the mains on every one right at the stall and had several absolutely greasers. To make it even better, I was flying in some pretty gnarly wind today which made the approaches more like roller coasters. It was a blast.
We went to a couple uncontrolled airports for the stop and goes so I also got to do a little x country navigation and radio work which was fun.
 
Thursday morning was rainy and cloudy (not to mention windy). Given wind from the south, the VOR approach into KOCF would have disrupted their traffic. So we flew DME arcs into KISM (the VOR/DME-A http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1604/05793VDA.PDF). The plane has a KX-175 and a Garmin GPS-150. (Or 155. Not sure at this point since I'm not in the plane. It's out of date but we used it as a DME anyway.)

I took off on 25 (KORL) and after getting out to the west, we were vectored south at 2200' to intercept the 227 radial from ORL. Once intercepted we were only making 55 kts ground speed. As we flew along approach called and said we were south of the radial. Hmm. Not according to the VOR in the plane. It wasn't too bumpy, just blowing. We did have to adjust a few times to stay out of the clouds.

Anyway, I flew the arc, turned towards KISM, at COOPY descended to the "DA" for which we used 1000'' to be nice to home owners. We were going missed any way. I flew the missed (but stopped climbing at 2000') and entered the hold. Once inbound, when I reached CAMBE, my instructor said go ahead an intercept and we'll go on.

So we did. Once again, approach called and said we were south of the radial. Again the VOR said we were right on. John (instructor) checked the GPS and claimed we were right on. We continued the approach and once on the 20 Radial from ORL, approach told us we were a mile right of course. I adjusted even though the CDI in the plane showed right on. John again said the GPS says we're right on, keep tracking. So I did. Again started the missed at 1000' this time with vectors.

We are vectored west and then north around KORL and in for the ILS 25 approach into KORL (http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1604/00305IL25.PDF). I flew that one with no problem at all and did a very nice (even John said so) crosswind landing with the stall horn on.

We taxied to the VOR checkpoint at KORL (actually tried 2 different ones) and the VOR was almost 4 degrees off and bouncing around. When I checked the recording on my iPad, it agreed with approach (i.e. south of the radial and off of the approach track). John is getting the VOR looked it. It appears (to me) to be the VOR because the LOC into KORL was right on the money. Why the GPS (in the plane) agreed with the VOR I have no idea.

1.9 hours under the hood, 2.3 total. I was beat.

John
 
Took my IFR written this am so let the clock start. Took the King Schools ground school for endorsement and used Dauntless iPad study prep. Same procedure as the PPL and scored a 92%. Come to think of it, the exact score I got on the PPL written. Now on to building those XC/PIC and IMC hours. Hope it doesn't take more then 2 years
 
Flying out to Dallas CAE for the ATP CTP course today. It starts tomorrow and I'll be there for a week. Back in NY for a few days then off to the school house for a few months! Very excited to be a student again and looking forward to the challenge that comes with airline training.
 
jordane93 said:
Flying out to Dallas CAE for the ATP CTP course today. It starts tomorrow and I'll be there for a week. Back in NY for a few days then off to the school house for a few months! Very excited to be a student again and looking forward to the challenge that comes with airline training.
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Too bad they couldn't have kept you close and sent you to Morristown.
 
Might as well post on this thread! I'm most of the way through my Private with requirements met across the board. I just want to get some more solo and dual hours in to really tune everything up before the checkride. And frankly, I'm in no rush. I could probably do an 'ok' checkride now with just over 40 hours, but I don't want to just shoot for the minimum standards. Plus, it's all time in the logbook :)
 
Literally just walked into the house coming back from doing the ATP checkride in a Seminole. What a joke of a checkride! Oral was basic aircraft systems and when I mean basic, I mean two sentences per system. Examiner and I basically B.S'ed the whole time and flight. Most relaxed I have ever been on a checkride. I think he was super lenient since I fly military. Did two 1 hour training flights and the checkride was an hour and a half. Fact that it was super cold and we almost needed a power cart to get the engines started, we probably spend 0.2 just letting the battery charge to start the second engine and let the engines warm up.
 
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